Maryland men’s basketball’s road struggles continued on Thursday night, this time in Evanston as Northwestern handed the Terps a 76-74 overtime loss.
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Julian Reese led the way with a game-high 23 points, his fifth 20-point game of the season thanks to 13-of-14 from the free-throw line, but an open shot attempt from Nick Martinelli was the difference in the end after his buzzer beater with 0.7 seconds left handed Maryland its third consecutive loss against Northwestern.
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And it didn’t start well either after Maryland struggled with ball security to open the game, amassing four turnovers ahead of the first media timeout before Julian Reese accounted for the fifth turnover on the first possession out of the break, but the two teams traded leads all night with 15 lead changes in the loss.
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Julian Reese, who moved to 34th on the all-time scoring list with 12 points in the first half, kicked off the scoring for Maryland and with the game tied at ten minutes later, he sparked a 6-0 run ahead of the under-12 media timeout, giving Maryland what would be their largest lead through the first half. But the Wildcats answered right back thanks to a 9-3 run over the ensuing 2:42 with neither team leading by more than one possession through the first half.
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After Northwestern took a one-point lead into the break, Maryland leaned on the back of their frontcourt after. Reese and Derik Queen teamed up for a 5-0 run, pushing Maryland ahead to hang onto the lead for the next four minutes.
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Reese would put Maryland ahead by three four minutes into the second half, but it’d be the last basket for nearly six minutes. And Northwestern gave its fans inside the Welsh-Ryan Arena plenty to cheer about after all three triples came during a 13-0 run as Maryland trailed by ten, its largest deficit in the loss.
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Maryland would have hope, though, thanks to Rodney Rice after scoring seven straight points for Maryland to trim the deficit to four under two minutes left. After Selton Miguel’s defense in the fullcourt press gave the Terps an extra possession, it’d be Julian Reese to capitalize after his jumper inside the paint made it a one-possession game. Ja’Kobi Gillespie’s layup with six seconds remaining sent the game into overtime, but Maryland slipped late.
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Maryland finished with four turnovers in overtime, including a ten-second violation by Gillespie with less than two minutes left, as Northwestern only led for the final 17 seconds. Brooks Barnhizer’s layup with 17 seconds left pushed the Wildcats ahead, 74-72, and after Gillespie’s second layup in the closing seconds of the period to tie the game, Martinelli converted a wide-open baseline jumper to end Maryland’s first overtime game of the season.
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